How to increase your farmers-market savvy

1/22

Khampha Bouaphanh/Special Contributor

Area farmers markets have more going on than local fruits and veggies, some picked just hours before you buy them. Apple preserves and red-wine jelly from Sundance Gardens in Paradise are available at the Coppell Farmers Market.

If you haven’t already checked out the nearest farmers market, it’s time to get crackin’. The earliest peaches are ripe (Ham Orchards near Terrell is open), ditto the earliest field tomatoes, and blueberries are only weeks away.

The markets have so much more going on besides local fruits and veggies, some picked just hours before you buy them. An ever-growing cast of vendors brings you cookies, breads, pastured meats, eggs from pastured chickens, pasta, Texas olive oil, organic milk and cheese, salsa, tortillas, wine, tamales and more.

I love visiting with vendors, such as Ellie Hughes, who closed her brick-and-mortar Twisted Pepper Co. in Wylie several years ago and is back with her wonderful dip and soup mixes, rubs and seasonings at Frisco Farmers Market. Or Deanna Alder at McKinney Farmers Market, who’s taking her first farmers-market plunge with Bite Me Bunz, crazy-good, pull-apart, sweet snacking bread.

Did you know that farm eggs are hot? Even with more producers, they’re flying out of booths. The early birds get ’em, or you can call a few days ahead and reserve some with a specific vendor.

Here’s a rundown of things you need to know to be a savvy farmers-market shopper.

Kim Pierce is a Dallas freelance writer.

1. Is it local?

Good question. Here’s how you can tell.

Familiarize yourself with what’s in season. The Dallas Farmers Market website has a “What’s in season” link with a month-by-month list, and there’s a more detailed chart at www.pickyourown.org/TXharvestdates.htm. (Pick-your-owns are different from farmers markets. They may have apples across three months, for example, but the Texas crop is so microscopic that apples rarely make it to markets.)

Familiarize yourself with the items that are never grown locally, such as cherries, avocados, mangoes, pineapple, bananas and rhubarb.

Some markets insist that produce be grown within a 150-mile radius. Other markets allow vendors to mix local and imported to offer a wider selection. Ask vendors where theirs comes from.

2. Nutrition

White Rock Local Market and Keller Farmers Market are the first area markets to accept the Lone Star Card, which helps low-income Texans purchase groceries.

At both markets, participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program should go to the market’s information booth, where they can swipe their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards in exchange for tokens or market dollars.

3. What to bring

Small-denomination bills and change

Your own large bag

A cooler for things that need to stay cold, such as eggs, dairy and meat

Flexibility: Produce and meats are seasonal. Vendors run out. Just deal.

4. My top market picks

These would have to be Coppell, McKinney and White Rock, but each market has its own charm and personality. All start with a great mix of vendors.

Coppell has deep community support and is run by Coppell Community Garden volunteers; it’s a feel-good place to shop.

McKinney, set in Chestnut Square Historic Village, plays up the nostalgia, but there are clean, modern restrooms in the administration building.

Great-tasting, pasture-raised Berkshire pork is a relatively new specialty in North Texas. It’s raised and sold by Livestock First Ranch (Coppell) and Rehoboth Ranch (Coppell, McKinney and Dallas, where it’s part of Texas Meats). JuHa Ranch added Berkshires this year (Dallas, White Rock).

6. Texas wines

This is the second year Texas wineries have been allowed to sample and sell their wines at farmers markets.

Landon Winery, on the square in McKinney, sells at McKinney. Six wines are all-Texas grapes; the others are blends.

Brennan Vineyards from Comanche sells its all-Texas wines (80 percent from estate-grown grapes) at White Rock. Retired doc and winemaker Pat Brennan often does the pouring.

7. More organics

Texas Daily Harvest at Coppell is the only certified organic dairy, making cheese, milk and yogurt; the milk is low-temperature pasteurized, the closest you can get to raw milk off the farm. Texas Daily Harvest also sells through select area stores and offers home and drop-site delivery for a variety of dairy, produce and meats, including Large Black Hog fresh heritage pork.

Three Happy Cows in Dallas uses certified organic milk for its drinkable yogurt; not all the fruit is organic (McKinney).

Good Earth Organics in Celeste is certified organic (McKinney).

Lots of farmers, such as Hiram Farm at Coppell, follow organic or sustainable practices, but don’t have the certification.

Berry Best Farm in LaRue is certified organic. Look for the berries at Dallas, Coppell, Frisco and McKinney.

8. Year-round greens

With hydroponic and greenhouse growers, lettuces and greens are available year-round, another newish feature.

At Coppell, longtime farmer Jack Finley (with son Kevin and helper Jae Carpenter) sells produce from his Lipan farm. Nearby, Stacy Finley, who got her start working on her Uncle Jack’s farm, sells produce from her own farm in Santo. She’s also at White Rock.

Livestock First Ranch pastured meats (Coppell) is a family spinoff of Dominion Farms (McKinney), both from Denison.

Homestead Land & Cattle Co., which makes awesome hot dogs from beef trimmings and sells at White Rock, is part of the Brazos de Dios heritage community near Waco. That’s also where Brazos Valley Cheese is made. (It used to be at markets; now it’s sold at Scardello Artisan Cheese and Whole Foods Markets.)

Then there’s the Heddin family dynasty. All the Heddins farm around Canton. Patriarch Roger Heddin sells under the Mill Creek Farms name at Grand Prairie, Rockwall and Celebration. Son Roger Jr. sells under the Heddin Family Farms name at Dallas and West Village. Son Rowdy sells as Rowdy’s Fresh Produce at Frisco and at his Rowdy’s Fresh Produce open-air market between Wylie and Lavon.

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